Bill,
You are indeed right. 2002 was the only and final year that white Skywave 650's were sold in Japan. Sounds like the year of a fine wine or something...
Re: group riding - most experienced rider at the front
This is certainly one way to ride in a group, but there is also another train of thought that suggests that the strongest and most experenced rider should go at the back. Afterall, it's the guy at theback that get's left behing at traffic ights, or on overtakes, and by nature of being at the rear, he;s the guy that accelerates out of bends last. It takes skill and good judgement to "keep up" safely, so there is an argument for the most experienced rider to "lead" from the back.
Who goes at the front? A smooth and easy going rider - usually older and experienced riding at a constant pace, no risky overtakes, etc. The racer boys and weaker riders should be sandwiched in between the smooth and stable front runner and the strongest most experienced rider at the back.
What do I mean by "lead" from the back? This is probably displayed most clearly on the highway when performing overtakes. Take a group of 4 riders on a 4 lane highway. They approach a line of trucks in the right-hand lane. The "leader" at the rear judges whether it is safe to overtake, indicates and pulls into the left-hand lane, the front runner then does the same, as do the two riders in the middle. They then proceed past the line of trucks and return to the right lane.
If you use the standard formation in this situation, the rearmost and weakest guy can get a slingshot effect as the stronger riders at the front make a good judgement call and make the overtake, and he now has to decide whether he does the same, or waits and "holds the group up". Being the weakest rider he is not well placed to make this sort of decision, and this can lead to dangerous overtakes and in the worst case collisions....
Having said that, smaller, experienced, evenly skilled riding groups can use the standard formation effectively and safely. Both schools of thought have their merits. I tend to lean towards strongest at the back when I ride in larger, mixed ability groups as I don't want the weaker riders to feel excluded or uncomfortable that they are "holding the group up". When I ride with small (3 bikes) similar ability riders with similar spec machines, we use the standard formation.
I don't actually think that our schools of thought on this are that different - your point was that the lead guy should navigate the group through hazards safely - in either goup riding style this is absolutely the case.
What do you think?